Cheers!

26 Responses

Another blow to the manned space program. I’m old enough to remember when astronauts — John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom and others — were regarded as heroes, not as lushes and desperate housewives.

That would be funny if it weren’t true. One can only hope that one of those occasions where astronauts showed up intoxicated wasn’t on January 28,1986 (the day the Challenger tragedy occurred). To think that with the money tax payers are asked to spend on the space program, that something like this could go on and no one thought we should know about it is beyond offensive! Quite frankly, as much as you’d like to think that the space program is a vital component of America’s progress, what fruit has it borne? What great improvements to the way we live our daily lives has it given us? In January of 2004, President Bush, when asking for an additional 12 billion dollars in NASA funding, said that “Space exploration improves our lives and lifts our National spirit.” Really? How? We’re still, essentially, strapping a flying brick to the back of a huge bottle rocket and hurling it into orbit!

With all of the money we’ve spent on space exploration, we still haven’t even figured out a more efficient way to get into space, much less explore it. Let’s face it, NASA is a joke. Even the people who are supposed to be the heros of the program refuse to take it seriously! They show up for missions drunk, they chase each other across the country wearing diapers and carrying rubber mallets or some craziness and they expect us to just keep on footing the bill! If NASA were a business, it would have gone belly up a long time ago. Fortunately for those “rocket scientists” with NASA it’s not a business, but instead just another Government funded boondoggle. The space program is a flop. It’s time to cut our losses, scrap the system and start over…maybe.

As one who was immersed in sci-fi since i was old enough to read, the idea of space travel has always enthralled me, and it still does. but i have to agree with a lot of what MURF says… it seems that NASA has become a bloated government sponge for money. and the news reports of late are not exacly inspiring.

Nevertheless, I can visualize the progression from Space Station to the Moon to Mars and then beyond, but I too wonder why we haven’t progressed past the shuttle…

Even so, the adventurer in me says that “out there” is where mankind’s destiny awaits, where the predictions of Arthur C. Clarke and Issac Azimov and countless others wait to be proven.

Funny how something that has been a tradition since the Gemini days get blown out of proportion once the Moron’s appointee Michael Griffin gets a hold of the place. If all that was between me and several thousand pounds of highly volatile rocket fuel was a few ceramic tiles, YOU BET I WOULD NEED A DRINK!

I was a staunch supporter of NASA for many years but the reality that we are trashing mother earth as if it’s going to last forever, with no considerations for man’s greed to use and abuse our world, has turned me against the NASA program. All I see now is a bunch of people that invested their education into some interplanetary exploration that only satisfies their own personal curiousity. Any benefits gained can be done on earth, and billions of dollars being wasted in NASA could offset the billions we’ve wasted in Iraq.

I pretty much agree with the disillusioned NASA admirers here. But let’s also consider that maybe the disillusionment isn’t so drastic as it seems:

From the beginning, NASA didn’t exactly recruit model citizens as astronauts … that was just the spin, back in a Cold War climate when Strangelove and Hoover type attitudes governed the public face of our government. I thought the scene in The Right Stuff where John Glenn tries to lecture his fellows about setting an example and not sleeping with every groupie in sight, and most of them considered him a nerdy drag, rang true in reflecting the times as well as the reality. The astronauts were no more noble than the Rat Pack. Why should we expect astronauts to be perfect now?

And it may be that we don’t need bodies in outer space as much, but sometimes only a spacewalk will do when courage and ingenuity can’t be replaced by a robot (yet). The space station and planetary explorations will probably prove worthwhile; they have certainly produced a lot of new knowledge, much of which (such as by Hubble and Cassini) was un-predictable. Just a few more years til the next technological leap will probably lessen some of the expense and side effects that come with launching many manned spaceships.

Right on JC, kind of makes you wish that NASA would share some of their technological advances and products to make our lives better. Uv protection, metal alloys, NASA/Debakey heart pump etc. that’s just child’s play.

Maybe it is the shuttle that is punching all of those holes in the ozone.

Firstly I don’t have to justify my reasoning for not perpetuating Nasa. I don’t consider it a necessary program, and until the right wing completely takes over this country and makes it into their own pied piper world, my opinion will remain. All of the self annointed space propaganders can go fly a kite.

“JC I’m a liberal democrat! But I think we need to continue space exploration”. Duly noted Tonybot, but in such cases we have to recognize that each person can have an opinion about a government program, and I no longer see the value of Nasa. For Nasa’s accomplishments are programs driven to make sure that Nasa remains a funtioning entity, which is, the accomplishments were contrived to insure its continuation. I insist that the same accomplishments can be made on earth, but that would be contrary to Nasa and would place them on the endangered list. Think outside the box.

“…if you want to be taken seriously”. I believe that to be an ideologued view, that suggests that I have to conform to someone elses judgemental reasoning. This is the attitude that I mostly object to on this blog, and that is people that constantly provide a lecture as if they are the annointed ones, and one should always follow their advice.

Sara wrote: “Here are just a few of the many ways NASA has benefitted us”

Sara,

I appreciate your attempt to show the relevancy of the NASA by linking to about.com. Unfortunately, I think some of the information is incorrect. For example, the CT or CAT scan was developed in 1972 by an English engineer named Godfrey Hounsfield and a South African man named Allan Cormack. I can’t find anything which associates either of them with the NASA program. Possibly the NASA needs to do a better job of marketing themselves. In any case, a thermal suit and a cordless drill don’t add up to billions of dollars in wasted taxpayer dollars.

How about this, you trekkies. Have the private sector take over Nasa, and the government take over the Oil companies. The government already controls the insurance companies, utilities, phone companies, High Definition TV, etc. The most “single” important commodity we have in this country is oil, and it’s in the hands of people that cannot be trusted, and are manipulating that “single” most important commodity with the blackmailing of our country. Oil companies do not have our national interests in their selfish pursuits and I believe it’s time we invoked patriotism to the oil companies, as a requirement for doing business in this country. If we can invade Iraq, we can invade the oil companies.

How about this, you trekkies. Have the private sector take over Nasa, and the government take over the Oil companies.

Posted by: JC at August 2, 2007 02:50 PM

Well, JC, I’m not especially a trekkie, and I think (considering who runs thinks these days) that the government already runs the oil patch. Whatever the case, I’m sorry you cannot as you put it “think outside the box” re space exploration.

I agree with you that MASA wastes large amounts of money — but what government agency doesn’t? That aspect seems to be a requirement in government. — and I would like to see that corrected. But I don’t see that happening, whichever party is in power. You should be aware, however, that NASA was never an exclusive “right-wing” program, it’s just their baby at the moment.